


And They Say Romance Is Dead

by Bonymaloney



Series: Fighting It At Every Turn [3]
Category: The Outer Worlds (Video Game)
Genre: Blow Jobs, Cowgirl Position, F/M, Headcanons about relationships and the OSI, Pining, Pre-Relationship, Secret Relationship, The captain rides him, The crew bully Max, These idiots are in love, annoyancefucking maybe, not hatefucking, prison tattoo headcanons
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-09
Updated: 2020-08-09
Packaged: 2021-03-05 22:41:41
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,872
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25812976
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bonymaloney/pseuds/Bonymaloney
Summary: Max was driven, hot-blooded and passionate, but he was still a Vicar of the OSI, and it had been foolish of her to hope for any different.
Relationships: The Captain/Maximillian DeSoto
Series: Fighting It At Every Turn [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1629799
Comments: 9
Kudos: 32





	And They Say Romance Is Dead

“Ok, Vicar. Here’s one for ya.” Felix had what he clearly thought of as a sly grin on his face. “Do you ever think that, from the Marauders point of view, maybe… we’re the Marauders?” 

Pearl braced herself for a sermon on the spiritual evils of the marauding lifestyle, but instead Max just shrugged. 

“Very well, Felix. Perhaps next time we should just let them kill us. But I suspect your sense of self-preservation will win out over any philosophical considerations.”

Pearl knew that Felix was simply looking for a way to rile the Vicar, his favourite pastime for when no tossball games were on the aether. But intentional or not, she felt he had a point.

“Yeah, Max. Doesn’t Scientism believe that the weak perish and the strong survive? So if marauders are surviving - ok, so not the ones we cross off - but if they take what they want and they’re strong enough to hold onto it, doesn’t that mean they’re doing right by the Law?”

“That’s not how it works.” He gave a patronising sigh, and Pearl felt her own temper rile a little.

“I’d rather fight marauders than a bunch of Byzantium social climbers any day. At least the marauders attack from the front,” Ellie chipped in, and Pearl clinked glasses with her. 

“Marauders are just corporations that don’t hide behind the social niceties. Face it, Max. If these guys had a cute mascot and a catchy jingle, you’d be congratulating them on the acquisition of their territory and giving them a seat on the Board.”

“The OSI can’t promote people to the Board; our role is merely to advise. The Board empowers the OSI in our mission to bring enlightenment to the ordinary people, and in return we promote their stability. We support the good, and suppress the heretical. Only those of Lawful character deserve to thrive, let alone come anywhere near Byzantium, and that’s…”

“And that’s a decision you get to make.”

Pearl frowned and thought it over. 

“Wait. So next time some stuffed shirt is giving us trouble, can’t you just threaten to… I don’t know, excommunicate them? Name them heretical?”

“I could never abuse my power in that fashion!” 

Max’s affront was utterly sincere, and Felix’s outrage was likewise. 

“Max, you called me a heretic when I said Mackenzie Singh was a better goalie than Will Walker!”

Nyoka looked up from her beer. 

“Yeah. You said it was heretical to use rapt musk in cooking too.”

Max flushed, the way he did when he knew he’d lost but wasn’t willing to admit it. 

“Sometimes it’s just a figure of speech!” he snapped, and he stormed out of the galley. 

“Figure all you want, Preacher Man. But you gotta admit, those cutlets were delicious,” Nyoka called after him. 

Parvati was sitting quietly by the refrigerator. 

“Vicar always used to preach on rationality and reason, being dignified and all… but he’s real easy to provoke sometimes.”

“When people show you who they are, believe them.” Nyoka said wisely. 

The group relaxed and started talking about the latest serial. Pearl listened for a while - she’d never been a big fan, back on Earth - then finished her tea. 

“Gonna hit the rack, guys.”

She made her way back towards her cabin. Max’s door was closed, the dull glow of his reading light leaking out around the edges. The effect was that of a man who clearly did not want to be disturbed. 

As arranged, Max was waiting for her in her quarters instead. What she hadn’t expected was that he was naked. He stood gazing out of the window, clutching a bottle of spectrum by the neck. The starlight framed his shoulders and the curve of his belly and ass, his big rough hands and his soft neat hair. He turned and displayed himself to her. His long, slim cock was beginning to flush. 

“I can’t handle all these mixed messages you’re sending me,” Pearl said to him. 

Max grinned darkly in response and took a swig from the bottle. He stood broad and relaxed, as if he shed his rigid, upright stance along with his robes, she thought. 

“I thought you wanted me to stop hiding behind social niceties.” His cheeks were a little flushed, his jaw tight. She’d seen him look that way before, usually before he hit something. 

“I can’t believe you let the crew get under your skin like that.”

“It’s not the crew who get under my skin.” His eyes were oddly soft, and he looked away hurriedly. Pearl felt something spark inside of her. The beginning of hope, maybe.

“Is this something you want to talk about?” She asked cautiously.

Max snarled back at her, always more comfortable in confrontation, and the spark died. 

“Frankly, Captain, fuck talking. You have no respect for my insight and my spiritual guidance falls upon deaf ears. I needed passage, you needed a crew; where there was a deficit, the Universe created a surplus. What is there to discuss.”

“But you came anyway?”

He shrugged. “We have an arrangement.”

The last word was full of venom, and Pearl thought she understood. He was angry with her; but angry and horny seemed strangely bound up together in his mind, and it hurt his pride. She understood because her pride was hurting too.

“Just an arrangement.”

“Does that vex you, Captain? I had thought that’s why we were both here.” His posture was challenging, trying to stare her down, but Pearl thought he wanted to fail.

“Fine, then get your ass over here.” He hadn’t expected that, she could tell by his face. “What? We’re done talking; and that cock isn’t gonna suck itself.”

He was naked and she was clothed, and that situation always excited her. She ran her hands down his body as she went to her knees in front of him. Bracing herself with her hands on his hips, she leaned in and worshipped at his thighs. The right one was adorned with dark blue ink, and she ran her tongue along the lines overlying the juicy solid slab of his quadriceps before moving inward and teasing at the paler, softer skin between his legs. He smelled musky and a little sharp, various bathing lotions overlying the warm dark scent that was all him. 

She pressed soft kisses to his ballsack before drawing one into her mouth, sucking and rolling it. Max made a whining sound. His cock was stiffening, she could feel the hot weight of it against her face. She wrapped her lips around the base of his shaft and began to move slowly upwards, kissing and licking, relishing the silky soft skin and the stiffness just beneath. 

“Oh fuck, _Captain_ , your mouth, yes-“ 

Pearl stopped and held his eyes with her own, letting him see the tip of his cock framed by her pink mouth, her tongue pressing against the underside. 

“Say my name, Max…”

“Captain - Pearl, please, Pearl, please suck my cock, it feels so good when you - _ah_!”

She took him right to the base, dragging her head back slowly. Max groaned. 

“Yes - Void-dammed _yes_ , oh fuck, I-“

Pearl set up a steady pace, guided by the stream of disjointed pleas and curse words he let out as much as by his hand in her hair. She lost herself in the sweet ache of her jaw and the blood-hot salty taste of him. His grip tightened and she thought he would come, until she realised he was urging her away from him. She looked up at him, saliva and precum on her face. 

“Be naked with me,” he said. “Please.” He offered her his hand and helped her to her feet. 

She undressed, and Max embraced her, strong arms wrapped around her as he drew her into a kiss. His lips were warm and full, and he moaned with pleasure at the taste of himself. He cupped her breast almost as though it was his first time, letting her nipple stiffen against his palm as he squeezed carefully, brushing across it with his thumb. 

Pearl pushed him gently, down and back, until he was lying on the floor with his long body stretched out before her. She straddled him and eased herself onto his cock, throwing her head back and letting out a throaty moan as he filled her. 

“My Captain,” he gasped, and whether he’d meant it as possessive or submissive or both, it felt right this time. He reached out his hand and she took it to brace herself as she began to ride him. Max gazed up at her, his eyes dark and his jaw slack. His free hand was grasping desperately at the unyielding floor below, and his face contorted as though in pain as he held himself back. He threw his forearm across his eyes to hide from her, and she could see the deep blue beautiful spiral beneath the skin, the flush spreading across his chest, his stiff hard nipples. 

“Come with me, Max,” she ordered, imperious, and she stroked her clit desperately as he shuddered and arched. He thrust up into her with a cry of relief, his big strong hands on her hips as he buried himself as deep as he could within her. Pearl let herself go as he held her, flooded with pleasure so sweet it was almost unbearable. 

She let Max shield her from the hard uncomfortable floor of the cabin and rested her head on his body, listening to his pulse. His fingers were trailing idly through her hair, grooming the loose strands back from her face, and she wondered if he even knew he was doing it. His chest rumbled when he spoke, and she thought he was trying to apologise. 

“That was wonderful, Captain. And what I said before, what we have… it’s no bad thing. I meet your needs, you meet mine - the Equation is balanced. It’s Verity.”

Max didn’t sound happy, but he sounded sincere. It was the Scientifical ideal of a relationship, Pearl knew; mutually beneficial, rational and productive. Back on Earth, she would have said it was her ideal, too; but she knew in her heart that there was a reason she’d never actually committed to it. And she knew why her own pride was wounded. Max was driven, hot-blooded and passionate, but he was still a Vicar of the OSI, and it had been foolish of her to hope for any different.

“That’s all we’re here for, huh? The Equation.”

“We are all part of the Equation, and through our actions we bring humanity closer to its ultimate fulfilment, yes. For example, from a teleological perspective, your purpose was to bring me to the scholar.”

“That’s from your perspective too, though. It’s funny how the Plan always seems to line up with what you want.”

There was real pain in his voice as he replied, and Pearl found herself wishing that they could talk like this at other times, times when they weren't fucked out and half drunk on the floor. 

“Because my purpose is to solve it! My life has been dedicated to understanding the Grand Equation. Without that I have… nothing.”

“That’s your choice.”

Max sighed. “Not from my perspective.”

**Author's Note:**

> This fic was originally written on tumblr for a smut meme - thanks to funkypoacher for tagging me! They are on here as Irrewilderer, be sure to check out their beautiful series of TOW fics.


End file.
